An Unlikely Friendship
by The Cat's Paw
Summary: An unlikely friendship is struck between two women with conflicting destinies. Technically a crossover with Doctor Who, but with none of those characters in here. T rated. Suspian.


**Hiya! This fic is technically a crossover with Doctor Who, but I decided not to put it in the crossover category, since no Doctor Who characters turn up. Though they _are_ mentioned. I kept going back and forth on this decision, but now that I've made it, I'm sticking with it. :P**

**Anyway, I don't own Narnia (or Doctor Who) but please enjoy this fic anyways! :)**

_**An Unlikely Friendship**_

It all started when that drunken Tralaxian she was carousing with dared her to input random coordinates into her time vortex manipulator. Susan, who was equally as drunk, instantly took up the challenge, and ended up landing on a rather beautiful island in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing familiar about the place, to be expected of course, but there _was_ something in the air that, even in her intoxicated state, seemed to remind her of something she'd forgotten long ago.

"What is that sweet feeling?" she muttered as she stumbled along. "It's like a refreshing cup of coffee in the morning, or a relaxing massage to ease tense muscles. I feel like I could lift a thousand pounds! And it's not just because I'm drunk."

She wandered further into the island, and came across a table laden with food. Her mouth salivated, and she took an unsteady step forward, before she stumbled completely, giggling as she went down.

"Oh dear, there goes my balance!" she laughed as she rolled over and stared up at the canopy of stars above.

Susan lay there awhile, just staring up. She felt quite warm, despite the fact that her clothes weren't suited to this cooler climate. As time passed, she began to feel drowsy, and soon fell asleep. She dreamed of vivid colours, and when she woke slightly shivering, it was to a pair of grey eyes staring curiously, but also warily, down at her.

Starting up, Susan stared wide eyed at the glowing (was she still drunk?) woman before her. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice a little rough from the combination of sleep and the after-effects of alcohol as she sat up.

"That is what I was going to ask you," the woman said. "I did not see a ship approach, and you do not seem to be a star to me. How did you get here?"

Susan stood up a little unsteadily, then held up her wrist, indicating her time vortex manipulator which was still secure upon her arm. "This is a device to move a person through space and time," she said. "It was a going away present from a friend."

The woman (a star, Susan was beginning to realise, though when was the last time she ever saw a star in human form? No, seriously?) stared at the manipulator in mild fascination, and looked a couple of times like she wanted to reach out and touch it, but restrained herself. Then she stood up straighter and introduced herself.

"I am Lilliandil," she said. "And you are most welcome here, as long as your intentions are peaceful."

Susan smiled, thinking briefly that that name sounded familiar. "You can call me Susan," she said. "Oh, I think we're going to get along just fine!"

And so they did. Susan spent some time there getting to know Lilliandil, but also would pop away for an adventure somewhere else, returning with plenty of tales for her friend. For Lilliandil, three years passed, with large gaps where Susan wasn't there. For Susan, it was seven months, as each time she returned, it was longer after the last. Finally, Susan arrived one day to find three figures slumped onto the table, sleeping soundly.

"They arrived half-mad, half-starved," Lilliandil said sadly. "They acted violently, and were sent to sleep as a result. But now a great evil is plaguing the sea, and unless someone or something stops it, I fear that evil may overtake all of this world."

"What can be done?" Susan asked.

"My father has told me that Aslan has spoken to him on this matter," Lilliandil said. "There are people on their way here, gathering what is necessary to break the curse the mist has on this world. But they will have many trials put in front of them, before it can be done."

Susan thought long and hard on that. On the one hand, Lilliandil said help was coming. On the other, it wasn't guaranteed that these 'heroes' would succeed. At least, not in her experience.

"Tell you what," she said soon enough, "if these people on their way don't succeed, I'll see if there's something I can do. After all, I've got a small, mostly non violent, arsenal in this bag."

She held up a bag she had with her, that could carry more in it than it seemed. Lilliandil smiled gratefully, but said, "Let's put our trust in Aslan first."

Susan nodded, once again marvelling over the familiarity of that name.

Time passed, and Susan got itchy feet, then took off for another adventure. She ran into a whole lot of trouble on this one, and came back with torn and dirty clothes, several scratches and bruises, and a faint sizzling scent about her due to ever so narrowly missing out on being fried alive by a focused plasma beam. To her surprise, when she arrived, there were a whole lot of people here. (not to mention, the three sleepers were now awake)

"Lilliandil!" she called as soon as she saw her friend talking with one of the men here.

Her friend turned and saw her, and gasped at her appearance. "Susan! What happened?" she exclaimed.

Susan gave a sheepish chuckle. "Well, the Ravenkian pirates didn't seem too pleased with the idea of me liberating an entire encampment of slaves," she said. "But it all worked out in the end! The slaves were all freed and went home, and the Galactic Police took the pirates off to jail."

Lilliandil sighed long-sufferingly. "The trouble you get yourself into," she said fondly. "Come on, then, let's go get you cleaned up."

Susan got all washed up, just in time for a boat and its party to come ashore. "There's a King and a few more men with him," Lilliandil was saying. "They, and the others here, came from a land far to the west called Narnia."

"That name sounds familiar," Susan murmured. "In the same way Aslan does, and even your name."

"Maybe you've been here before?" Lilliandil suggested. "You did tell me you've forgotten a lot, because of that strange storm you mentioned that time?"

Not long after first arriving here, Susan had told Lilliandil about her visit to a planet called Derivium 7. There had been a huge storm raging when she and the Doctor had landed there, and they hadn't realised the psychic power behind it at first. The Doctor had been fine, but Susan had lost a huge chunk of her memories, and a lot of what she did remember was faded, and seen as if from an outsiders point of view. Though he had told her that, with the right trigger, she might remember one day.

"Maybe," she mused.

The King and those with him were coming up, and Susan got a good look at his face from the tree she'd climbed up into, just kicking her heels back. "Ooh, he's a handsome one," she remarked. "Has he made a move on you, yet?"

Lilliandil sighed. "Quite frankly, they _all_ have," she muttered, but put on a genuine smile when the King arrived. "Your Majesty, you've returned safely."

The King smiled and Susan felt… something… stir in her, and another feeling also, one less pleasant, when Lilliandil smiled shyly back at him. "As I promised I would," he told her.

Lilliandil liked him, Susan could see, and she felt an irrational jealousy, one that she had no idea of the origin of it. Who was she to begrudge her friend a crush (or possibly more) on this rather handsome King? Susan was a vagabond, really, travelling from one place to another in imitation of the Doctor. Really, who was she that this even really mattered? This was Lilliandil's world, and besides, it's not like anyone else here even knew her…

"I am glad," Lilliandil was saying. "I have someone I'd like you to meet, a good friend of mine." She turned to look up to where Susan was sitting, frozen in place. "Come on down here, Susan," Lilliandil waved her down.

The King seemed to freeze at the name, and seemed just as unable to move as Susan was at that point. Then, as if in slow motion, he looked up to where she was sitting, and their eyes locked. His widened in shock, but Susan's were (she hoped) an unreadable mask. The two stared at one another for what seemed an eternity, then Susan regained her ability to move and think. Just a little.

She jumped down, a smile plastered on her face. "Hello," she said. "I'm Susan."

There was confusion on his face, like he didn't understand why she was introducing herself like this. "It…" He cleared his throat. "It's good to meet you, Susan," he said, his voice a little husky. "I am Caspian."

That name stirred something deep within her, deeper than anything else had, and Susan felt incredibly woozy. She swayed on her feet, hearing Lilliandil gasp and reach out to her. Distantly she heard her friend calling her name, but Susan was lost to a raging torrent as memories flooded her, overwhelming her. Darkness called her, and the next thing she knew, the ground was rushing up to meet her…

….Her eyes blinked open.

Susan was lying on the bedding that had been set aside for her by Lilliandil back when they'd first met. She shifted slightly, then sat up carefully, noting a throbbing headache. Her memories were back, though her brain still seemed to be sorting through them. But she remembered.

She remembered coming to Narnia, and ruling over it for fifteen years, before leaving once more for England. She remembered a year of struggling to adjust to life back home, then being whisked away to Narnia once more. Susan remembered falling in love, and then leaving him behind after being told she couldn't come back. Of once again struggling to adjust, pushing Narnia, and therefore her siblings, away. Tears came to her eyes as she remembered getting the visit from the sad-faced policemen about the train accident, then finding that police box where it wasn't supposed to have been…

She looked around, then stifled a gasp at the sight before her. Caspian was there, sat leaned against the wall, and fast asleep. He was older than she last saw him, but then she was too. If she remembered what Edmund and Lucy had told her correctly, then he was twenty one now. She herself was twenty three, _older_ than him now. Physically that is. It had been seven years since she'd last seen him.

Susan got up as quietly as possible, finding her bag nearby, and rummaging around in it to find that her vortex manipulator was still in there. She was _so _tempted to use it, to _never_ come back. Lilliandil. She remembered now, Lilliandil was the one that Edmund, Lucy, and even Eustace were sure that Caspian was going to marry. Had he married her? Susan vaguely recalled something about Caspian having a son after Eustace's second visit, but by then she had stopped participating in the 'Narnia is real' conversations.

Susan snuck out of there and went straight to a place that was removed from Aslan's table. She sat there, vortex manipulator in hand, staring down at it for who knew how long, before Lilliandil found her and sat next to her. Her friend didn't say anything (a testament to how well she'd come to know her over time) but simply waited for Susan to speak.

"I shouldn't be here," she said finally, stowing the manipulator away.

"They told me about who you are," Lilliandil countered. "Sir Drinian told me. I had no idea you were one of Narnia's Queens."

"What else did they say?" Susan asked, curious despite herself.

Lilliandil sighed. "That King Caspian has spent the last three years pining over you," she said. "That he has rejected a lot of marriage offers because he couldn't move past you."

"You're supposed to marry him," Susan said. "Ed, Lu, and Eustace told us…"

"You remember…" Lilliandil guessed, and Susan nodded.

"The Doctor said I needed the right trigger to remember," she said. "Seems Caspian's name was it."

There was silence between them for a bit, then Lilliandil said, "He's been looking for you. Woke up to find you gone, and he's been frantic ever since. I guessed you were out here, it's one of your favourite spots, after all."

Susan turned to see her smiling at her in that sweet way of hers. Lilliandil wrapped an arm around her and Susan leaned into her friend. "I think I would like to just stay here on this island forever," she mumbled.

"No you wouldn't," Lilliandil scolded her. "You'd rather go off on your adventures and never return, than be stuck here on this island with me."

"Without you," Susan mumbled. "You're supposed to marry Caspian."

Lilliandil sighed, and Susan detected a little frustration. "I think it's up to _me_ who I marry, wouldn't you agree?" she asked. "I mean, King Caspian _is_ very handsome, and I think maybe I could grow to love him in time. But right now, it's nowhere near that. Besides, he loves _you_. Even if you left now, I doubt he and I would be married at all."

Susan sniffled lightly as tears threatened. "I don't think that Aslan would let me stay," she said as her last attempt.

Lilliandil briefly hugged her tight before she let her go and stood up. "I think that if Aslan was against you being here, he would have done something about it months ago," she said. "Susan. My _dearest_ friend. I know you still love the King, I can see it in your posture, in your eyes. Go to him."

But Susan didn't move after Lilliandil had left. Yet it mattered not, for shortly after, Caspian showed up. He stood in her peripheral for some time, taking a hesitant step forward a couple of times before stopping. Finally, he seemed to pluck up some courage and came over to sit next to her.

"Susan," he whispered. "Please, look at me."

With great reluctance, she raised her head to look into his eyes. She saw love shining there, as well as concern and wariness. He reached up a hand and lightly caressed his fingers against her cheek, and Susan had to work hard to resist letting her eyes fall shut at the feeling.

"How are you here?" he asked.

Susan looked away from him, feeling his hand fall away. "The last time I saw you," she told him, "was seven years ago, for me. It was… _hard…_ to live in my world again. So hard, that I started to push everything about Narnia away in order to cope. Then one day, it all came crashing in on me, when I learned of a rail accident. My parents, my siblings, my cousin… All dead in one fell swoop."

She heard Caspian gasp, and glanced up to see shock and pain marring his features. "They… they're all _dead_?" he whispered in horror, and she nodded sadly as she looked away once more.

"Some months after that," Susan went on, "and I met someone, the Doctor. He was an eccentric old man in a younger man's body, who travelled to other worlds. All science, mind you, no magic. He invited me to travel with him, and I took him up on it. I never told him about Narnia, a part of me was scared that he'd be able to find it, and would bring me here. But then we parted ways rather hastily a year and a half ago now, though his wife gave me a parting gift before they left."

Susan pulled up her bag into her lap, rummaging around and pulling out her vortex manipulator. "This allows me to travel anywhere through time and space," she told him, holding it up for him to see. "And it's how I got here. Though I must admit, I was quite drunk when I arrived, I lost a bet with a Tralaxian smuggler. He dared me to put random coordinates in, and that somehow brought me here."

She looked up at him. "I'm not supposed to be here," she told him. "I'd forgotten everything, and I don't mean just because I made myself forget. There was… an _incident_ on a planet, and most of who I was disappeared. The Doctor couldn't help me, but he said there was a chance that something could trigger the reversal of the psychic damage, and I would remember. That trigger was your name."

"I remember everything," she told him. "Including how you married Lilliandil and had a son with her. Eustace met him, you know."

Susan looked away from him. "My being here is a mistake," she said. "I should leave, but I quite honestly find myself unable to do so. I can't bring myself to walk away from you again."

She fell silent then, and the two sat there quietly for a moment, before Caspian began to speak. "The first year or so after you all left was especially hard," he told her. "I didn't sleep much, and when I did, my dreams were filled with you. I kept myself busy, learning everything I needed to know to properly rule Narnia, even starting up the project of rebuilding Cair Paravel."

Susan gasped lightly at this, head shooting up, their eyes meeting. Caspian took her hand in his, and she couldn't look away as he continued, "The dreams faded, but my love for you did not. Even though my advisors kept prompting me to find a suitable wife, I simply could not look past my memory of you. When we came here, I thought… Lilliandil seemed to be perfect, and I thought that maybe she could help me move on past you. But then you were _here_, and I realised… There's _no one_ who could ever replace you, Susan. I love you, _so much_, and I don't want you to leave. You cannot leave me again. Please, Susan."

He leaned down then, capturing her lips in a kiss. Susan melted against him, returning the kiss with fervour. Her hands came up, fingers threading though his hair, even as his arms pulled her closer, one hand coming up to cup her face. Her lips parted in a sigh, and his tongue clashed with hers soon after that. They sat there for some time, tasting one another, until the need for more air than they could breathe in through their nose pulled them apart.

"I love you, Caspian," Susan whispered, head resting against his chest. "Even when I forgot, there was this part of me that was empty without you. I searched for you, even though I had no idea what I was looking for."

"You've found me now," Caspian murmured in her ear. "And you never have to let me go again."

"Susan. Caspian."

The voice that called to them was familiar to them, and they both shot up into a standing position as they saw Aslan before them, though Caspian was quick to kneel. "Aslan," Susan breathed, and without thinking, she ran forward to embrace him in a way that she'd never been brave enough to consider before. "Oh Aslan, I've missed you!" she exclaimed. "And I'm so, _so_ sorry for forgetting about you. The on purpose time, not the other one. Though I'm sorry for that as well!"

Aslan laughed lightly as he hugged her back, then Susan pulled away and returned to a now standing Caspian's side. "Are you… you're not going to ask me to leave, are you?" she asked, suddenly uncertain.

Caspian's hand grasped hers tightly, desperately, but the great Lion shook his head. "I will not ask you to leave," he told her. "You came here in a way beyond my influence, and besides, even if I did ask you to go, I doubt you would go back to England, am I right?"

Susan shook her head. "I'll never go back there," she said sadly.

"All I ask," Aslan said, "is that you give up the manipulator. If you stay, I do not want this device to stay here also."

Susan nodded, then pulled out the manipulator. She sighed as she looked down at it, thinking on all of her adventures. Then she held it out, and Aslan stamped his paw upon the ground, and it vanished.

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," she said, then moved her hand back into Caspian's.

Aslan came forward then, and breathed his blessing upon the couple. "I wish you well, King Caspian, Queen Susan," he said. "Long may you both reign in Narnia."

Then he was gone.

Susan and Caspian turned to face one another, and he lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles in a move reminiscent of that time so long ago. She flushed slightly. "No regrets?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"No regrets," she promised him, and they turned to walk hand in hand back to Aslan's table. "Though I do have a lot of stories to tell you."

"I can't wait to hear about them," Caspian told her.

And many years later, after the end of Narnia, Susan was reunited with her _very_ surprised (but overjoyed) siblings in Aslan's Country.

**So what did you think? Review please!**


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